Argentinian Christmas Tapas

No matter what country we're in, on Christmas Eve we eat a lot of home cooked food, drink (copious amounts) of red wine, and watch "It's a Wonderful Life". In 2012 it was Mexican lasagne in Thailand, in 2011 sangria and snacks in China, and now that I'm sitting here I can't actually remember 2010 (China) or 2014 (Dublin, 4 months ago). Must not have been that exciting...

2013 was our first Christmas in Dublin as a married couple, so what better way to celebrate than to make non-Christmasy food from a country I've never been to.

I like to eat food that takes a long time to eat and can be nibbled on throughout a night. These meat pies fit the bill. I perused a lot of recipes and combined a few into one. Now I can't remember which sites though :(

Empanada dough
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used cream flour; is that the same?)
6oz unsalted butter cut into pieces (I used Alton Brown's method of using a cheese grater)
1 egg
4-5 TBs of water
1TB white wine vinegar

Mix ingredients into a ball and flatten slightly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out dough and cut circles (I used a glass). I ended up rolling out the circles thinner before adding the filling.

next time: more vegetables and less meat

Filling
500 grams minced beef
2 white onions
2TB smoked paprika (maybe too much)#
2TB cayenne
1TB oregano
1/2 TB ground cumin
2 green onions finely chopped
2 diced hardboiled eggs (the first time I ever made HB eggs!)
1/4 cup sliced green olives
some capers

Cook onions, add meat and spices. Mix in green onions, egges, olives, and capers at the end.
Let mixture cool and then put a dollop in the centre of a circle of dough. Seal edge by braiding dough and use a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Bake in oven 18-25 at 375.

I served with chimichurri sauce:
1 1/2 cups parsley leaves
6 basil leaves
leaves from 3 oregano sprigs (I couldn't find, so I used dry)
4 cloves of garlic
6TB olive oil
3TB white wine vinegar
1tsp cayenne
salt and pepper

Mix everything together in a blender.
Serve in small bowls to dip empanadas in.

I served these with warm salad of chorizo, red pepper, onion, tomato, and parsley. Also roasted mushrooms marinated in olive oil and balsamic and filled with feta cheese and spinach. I also bought a ham and cheese platter from Tesco. It was so-so.

Overall, the empanadas were good. The dough was a bit hard and a little too vinegary. Maybe I overworked it? But for that night, they helped make for a wonderful life!